Reflections on Day One in Tamarindo

Reflections on Day One in Tamarindo

OMG we love Costa Rica. I’m not even sure where to start, so I’ll just tell you about our last 24 hours..

Matt's New Office

The travel portion was a piece of cake. Really not much to say. Flight were seamless, connections perfect. We arrived in CR late last night around 9pm. We are definitely at a dis-advantage not knowing more than “Dora Spanish” but it’s not a huge deal.. unless there is something wrong or weird.

So we arrive at our hotel after about a 60 minute drive from the airport and after unpacking the entire van, I realized we are missing a bag. It’s not a huge deal, but it’s a bag we’ll need eventually. Cue the pantomime experiment. Luciano, our driver, didn’t speak a lick of english and trying to explain to him that we were missing a bag, what the bag looked like and asking him to get it next time he’s at the airport was a little tough. But it worked! We still do not have the bag, but with the help of both the hotel owner and the spanish institute owner we are 90% sure we should have the bag by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

Abby and Frank (her new BFF)

Our hotel is wonderful. It’s very quaint. This is not the ritz. It’s our style. It’s old, and beautiful. We are living in the owners old house (Pino). He built a new casa, and now rents out his old house to larger families. We have our own private yard and our front door (at least the locking portion) is the entrance to the yard, not the house. Hard to explain, we’ll post a video eventually. Love it. There’s a great pool here, a restaurant (when they want to open) and so many cats and dogs I can’t even tell you..

So at 9;30 we met the leader of the surf camp (Frank) and he gave us an in-pool training about how to fall off a board, how to protect your head when you fall, etc. And then we were off to the surf institute to get a quick tour, sign a few waivers and we were off to the beach to surf. It was great! We learned how to “popup” on the board which Erin, Ben, Jake and Abby mastered quickly, for me, it was a little harder… got that belly to pick up with the rest of my body! 🙂 After that, we were in the ocean and learning to surf. We had 6 instructors between the 5 of us (amazing team) and everyone got up at least for a split second if not longer. Erin, Ben and Jacob rode waves in a bunch of times (so proud!) and abby and I had a little harder time, but we both got SOOOOO close. It’ll happen this week for sure. I’m already in love with surfing, I can only imagine that it is going to grow daily.

2 minute walk from our home

The most remarkable thing I saw today was Abby and her surf instructor Frank. She and Frank hit it off big time. I’ve never seen her gravitate to a non-family member male this quickly. When I saw her grab his hand this evening and then ride on his shoulders, I new she was happy and content. It made us so happy.

Post surfing, we had a great lunch, came back to the hotel and swam for while. I worked for a while and got to check in with Brent at work which was nice.

Around 4pm, we took a walking tour with our new team of instructors and they showed us Tamarindo. They showed us where NOT to walk after dark, the best places to eat, the best places to get cash, etc. It was so helpful. Had so much fun talking with them and hanging out. Ended up at a rooftop restaurant and enjoyed the sunset with the entire crew. It’s been 20 hours here and we already have friends, a support system and people that we trust. I could not have asked for more.

Sunset drinks with a few of our new friends

There is so much more to say, but I’m exhausted.. there will be more, I promise. To sum it up, we are so very happy here. We feel almost at home already. We will be home to Colorado, but it’s going to be hard to drag us away from Costa Rica. This was the best decision we have ever made as a family. I wouldn’t have changed a thing.